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Sunrise, ...... Salute of 13 Guns, and ringing of Bells. 

PARADE 

To form under the Marshal, near the residence of D. H. Page, at 10.00 A. m. 

The Procession will consist of 

Officers of the Day. 

Collinsville Cornet Band. 

Citizens on foot. 

Allegorical Car. 

Saint Patrick's Benevolent Society. 

Mounted Soldiers in Uniform. 

Veteran Citizens. 

Allegorical Car. 

Veteran Drum Corps. 

Societee Saint Jean Baptiste. 

Deutscher Gegenseitigen Untersliitzung Verein. 

Deutscher Turner Verein. 

Sjukforeningen Norden. 

Public Schools. 



At 1 1 o'clock the Procession will move down Maple Avenue to Center Street ; 
thence south through Center and North Streets to Main; thence down Main to Center 
Street; thence south on Center to South Street; thence through South and Front 
Streets to Main; thence u]) Main to the Valley House; thence to the Grand Stand. 

At 12 o'clock, ......... Salute of 38 Guns, 

Mass Meeting at Grand Stand, ....... 12.30 p. M. 



PROGRAMME, 



Music, 
Prayer, 
Singing, 



Collinsville Cornet Band. I 
Rev. Edward E. Lamb. 
Chorus of loo Voices. 



(The audience is requested to rise and join in all singing.) 
Ill 



I. Lord ! while for all mankind we pray. 
Of every clime and co.ist, 
Oh, hear us for our native land, 
The land we love the most. 

H. Oh! guard our shore from every foe, IV 

With peace our borders bless. 
With prosperous times our cities crown. 
Our fields with plcnteousness. 

4. Reading the Declaration of Independence, 

5. Historical Address, .... 

6. Singing, ....... 

I. My country! 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty, 

Of thee I sing: 
Land where my fathers died I 
Land of the Pilgrims' pride ! 
From every mountain side 

Let freedom ring. 

II. My native country, thee — 
Land of the noble free — 

Thy name I love ; 
I love thy rocks and rills. 
Thy woods and templed hills ; 
My heart with rapture thrills 

Like that above. 



Unite us in the sacred love 
Of knowledge, truth, and Thee ; 

And let our hills and valleys shout 
The songs of liberty. 

Lord of the nations, thus to Thee 
Our country we commend; 

Be Thou her refuge and her trust. 
Her everlasting friend. 

George W. Flint. 

William E. Simonds. 

Chorus of 100 Voices. 

III. Let music swell the breeze. 
And ring from all the trees 

Sweet freedom's song ; 
Let mortal tongues awake ; 
Let all that breathe partake ; 
Let rocks their silence break — \ 

The sound prolong. 

IV. Our fathers' God ! to thee. 
Author of liberty. 

To thee we sing: 
Long may our land be bright, 
With freedom's holy light; 
Protect us by Thy might. 

Great God, our King ! 

RECES.S. 

(During the recess a Collation will be served, while the audience remains seated.) 



1. Music, ..... 

2. Brief Addresses. 

3. Singing, 

I. Oh! say, can you see, by the dawn's early 

light. 
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's 
last gleaming. 
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' 
the perilous fight. 
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gal- 
lantly streaming; 
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs burst- 
ing in air. 
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was 

still there. 
Oh ! say, does that star spangled banner yet 

wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the 
brave ? 

II. On the shore, dimly seen through the mists 

of the deep, 
Where the foe's haughty host in dread si- 
lence reposes. 
What is that which the breeze, o'er the tower- 
ing steep. 
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half dis- 
closes ? 



Collinsville Cornet Band. 



Chorus of 100 Voices. 

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's 

first beam, 
In full glory reflected now shines in the 

stream. 
'Tis the star spangled banner — oh, long may 

it wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of 

the brave ! 

in. Oh! thus be it ever when freemen shall 

stand 
Between their lov'd homes and war's deso- 
lation. 
Blest with victory and peace, may the 

Heaven rescued land 
Praise the Power that hath made and 

preserved us a nation. 
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is 

just, 
And this be our molto : In God is our trust. 1 
And the star spangled banner in triumph 

shall wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of 

the brave. 



Sunset, 



Salute of 13 Guns. 



A large display of lire-works in the evening. 



EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 



Charles Blair, 
W. W. Hidwell, 
G. R. Shepherd, 
Ei>hriani Hoii.q;h, 



E. H. Sears, Chairman, 
A. L. Thayer, Secretary, 



Albert Williams. 



W. Edgar Simonds, 
Charles H. Blair, 
E. A. Hough, 
W. T- Soudaiit, 



W. S. Johnson, 

J. H. Thompson, 

Charles Blair, 
Levi Case, 



Ezra Adams, 
E. N. White, 



A. F. Alderman, 
J. E. Wheelock, 



Luke Chapman, 
S. F. Stevens, 



Giles Sisson, 



SPECIAL COMMITTEES. 

PARADE. 

W. W. Bidwell, Grand Marshal, 
Albert Williams. 

SALUTE. 

Wm. Edgar Simonds, Chairman, 

MUSIC. 

E. A. Hough, Chairman, 

LITERARY EXERCISES. 

George R. Shepherd, Chairman, 

D. B. Hale. 

COLLATION. 
Charles H. Blair, Chairman, 

Austin Beckwith. 

CONSTRUCTION. 

Ephraim Hough, Chairman, 

DECORATION. 

W. ]. Soudant, Chairman, 



FINANCE. 

Charles Blair, Chairman, 
B. F. Jones, Treasurer. 

PRESERVATION OF ORDER. 



E. A. Hough. 



Giles Sisson. 



A. F. Humphrey, 
E. H. Sears, 



A. W. Bristol, 

B. O. Higley, 



J. L. Andrews, 
C. H. Blair. 



W. S. Johnson, 
I. D. Marks. 



T. B. Flint, 



Albert Williams, 
W. H. Hawley, 
Alfred Allen, 



G. C. Calhoun. 



Ephraim Hough, 
E. K. Richardson, 
A. G. Hart, 



ADDRESS, 



My Friends : 

The history of the town of Canton contains little that is strange 
or startling, or greatly unlike the history of many other towns, 
but it is a history all our own ; and gathered here, as we are, 
to celebrate the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Declaration of In- 
dependence, a most notable event in our general history, it is a fitting 
time to glance backward over that series of local events which has 
resulted in placing our homes and ourselves where they and we are 
to-day. 

llie town of Canton is an outgrowth from the town of Simsbury, 
and is identical therewith in history till the year A. D. 1806; the 
town of Simsbury is an outgrowth from the original settlement of the 
town of Windsor; and at this writing the same family names prevail, 
to a great extent, in all three of these towns. 

A proportion of the inhabitants of this town, and a still larger 
proportion of the inhabitants of the towns of Simsbury and Windsor, 
can trace their ancestry to a band of English families which, under 
the pastoral charge of Rev. Mr. Warham, sailed from the mother 
( ountry in A. D. 1630. They landed at Boston, remained at what is 
now Dorchester for five years, and, in the fall of 1635 and spring of 
1636, journeyed through a hundred miles of primeval forest to the 
banks of the Connecticut river, and settled at Windsor. 

In those days there were great forests of stately pines on these 
mountain sides, among them a very extensive one surrounding what is 
now the village of Simsbury ; and, somewhere between 1640 and 
1645, John Grififin came down there from the Windsor settlement and 
entered on the rude manufacture of tar, pitch and turpentine from 
these pines, living in a rude camp and occasionally visited by hunters 



lO HISTORICAL ADDRESS. 

of deer and bear, and fishers of salmon an(i trout, all of which then 
abounded there. 

The whole tract of land commencing at the bend in the Tunxis, 
now the Farmington river, nine miles south of us, and running to the 
Massachusetts line, was then known by the Indian name of Massacoe. 

In 1648 an Indian, Manahoose byname, kindled a fire which acci- 
dentally burned a large quantity of Griffin's combustible goods; 
thereupon Griffin laid hold of the offender and procured from him a 
rude deed of the whole territory of Massacoe, which deed may be 
found recorded in the town of Windsor. Griffin soon after procured 
a similar conveyance from two other Indians, and these deeds were 
afterward in some sort validated by a deed, given in 1680, in accord- 
ance with colony laws, Griffin being one of the grantees. 

The commencement of permanent settlements in Massacoe was as 
early as 1664; the territory was incorporated as Simsbury in 1670, at 
which time there were but twenty towns in the whole colony. 

In 1675 this settlement had grown to about forty families, dwelling 
in rude log-houses. Then the Indian troubles, known as King Philip's 
war, broke out, and the settlers were so much harassed by the savages 
that in March, 1676, acting by order of the General Assembly, they 
all deserted the settlement. 

Sunday, March 26, 1676, now two hundred years ago, the Indians 
came down upon the deserted village and burned it all ; the legend 
has it that King Philip himself sat upon the neighboring mountain, 
where the tower now stands, and with grim Indian satisfaction saw the 
log cabins disappear in flame. That mountain was ever after, till of 
late, called Mount Philip from this event. The poor exchange of this 
name for that of Talcott Mountain should never be recognized. 

The settlers at Simsbury, true to their puritan instincts, early took 
steps to establish a ministry and build a house of worship. These 
steps commenced in 1671, but the all-important question of locality 
came in and retarded the work many years. The town once decided 
to build the meeting-house on the east side of the Tunxis river, then 
at Hop Meadow (now Simsbury Street), then near the dwelling of the 
now deceased General Pheljjs, then again at Hop Meadow, and then 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS. II 

at Still another place. The matter was then left to Major Talcott and 
Captain Allyn, who chose Hop Meadow. The town refused to abide 
by this selection, and finally settled the matter by drawing lots, 
wherein chance favored Hop Meadow, and in 1685 the meeting-house 
was built in front of the burying-ground, then where it is now. 

At an ordination in 1697, as the records show, beef was furnished 
at three cents per pound, mutton at three and one-half cents, and rum 
at four and one-half cents a gill. 

In 1 725 an agitation commenced for the erection of a new meeting- 
house, and the bitter controversy waged over it lasted thirteen years. 
It was so violent as to separate friends and families ; it became so 
fierce and general that the ministerial association suspended the ad- 
ministration of the "Lord's Supper," and for three years the Gene- 
ral Assembly refused to appoint any justices of the peace. Locality 
after locality was decided upon in town meeting only to be rejected 
at the next meeting; committee after committee appointed by the 
General Assembly reported a location only to have the report rejected 
by the people. 

The controversy was settled at last by the division of the town 
into three ecclesiastical societies, each with a meeting-house for itself. 
The meeting-house for the Hop Meadow society was built in 1743. 

As you travel to Hartford, by the Connecticut Western Railroad, 
you may see an old church and burying-ground, just before you reach 
"Scotland" station. This is the Protestant Episcopal Church of St. 
Andrews, and owes its foundation, in 1740, to the bitter controversy 
waged over the building of the Congregational meeting-house in 
Simsbury. 

The best authority that can be had gives this quarrel as the reason 
and occasion of the settlement of what is now the town of Canton, 
then called West Simsbury. Those who care to see an easily accessi- 
ble instance of the use of this name, as well as of our colonial 
existence, under the rule of a king, have but to visit the old burying- 
ground, a hundred rods east of the Canton Center railway station, 
which was the first burying-ground within our town limits. 

The earliest residents settled at "Cherry's Brook," and there- 



12 HISTORICAF. ADDRESS. 

about. "Cherry's Brook" was named from an Indian having his 
habitat in that locality, who frequently appeared at Hop Meadow, 
or vSimsbury Street, to whom the people there gave the sobriquet of 
"Cherry," from his fondness, I suspect, of the stimulant known by 
that name ; for I have it, on good authority, that on an election day 
afterward, he and other Indians entered the tavern of Oliver Humph- 
rey, in Canton Street, where he drank till he became noisy and 
quarrelsome, so that the landlord refused him any more liquor, where- 
upon he threatened to come of a night, take the landlord's scalp, 
carry it off to Canada, and "get great bank money" for it ; to which 
the landlord replied by seizing the Indian's brandished knife, kicking 
him out of doors, belaboring him with a black snake whip till he 
brought the blood, and bidding him begone. "Cherry" went, joined 
some far western tribe, and never re-appeared in these parts. His 
real name was Waquaheag, and is borne on a deed recorded in the 
State records. 

I am satisfied that "Cherry's Pond" was named from this Indian, 
and not, as is sometimes said, from the wild cherries on its banks, 
for — the cherries are not there. 

The earliest known settler of what is now Canton was Richard Case, 
who came from Simsbury in 1737. The site of his old house may 
still be seen, opposite the house of his descendant John Case, on the 
eastern slope of East or " Woodchuck " hill. He had ten sons and 
two daughters ; and his son Sylvanus, whom some of you before me 
have seen, was the first white child born within our town limits. 

Following Richard Case, in 1738, there came, from Simsbury, four 
brothers, Samuel, Thomas, Jonathan, and John Barber. Dr. Samuel I 
Barber lived on the premises now occupied by George Lamphear ; he 
had eleven sons and three daughters, all of whom lived to become 
men and women. 

Sergeant Thomas Barber lived on the premises since occupied by 
Hosea Case, now deceased ; the house was taken down by Giles 
Sisson. He had five sons and as many daughters. 

Jonathan Barber lived on land since owned by Gardner Mills, just 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS. I3 

south of the house of Jesse L. Barber, and now owned by Alfred 
Humphrey ; he had but two sons and one daughter. He died in early 
life at the siege and capture of Louisbourg. 

John Barber lived in a house on the site of the one since occupied 
by Treat Lambert, and now, I think, occupied by Howard Rogers. 

In 1 740 came Deacon Abraham Case and settled on East Hill. In 
the same year came Amos Case, brother to Abraham, and also settled 
on East Hill, in a house near the present. residence of Myron Case. 

In 1 741 came Benjamin Dyer, a school-mate of Benjamin Frank- 
lin, from Boston, and settled on the premises now occupied by Daniel 
H. Page. The Page house is believed to be the oldest house in town, 
having been built, as is asserted, in 1747. 

In 1 741 Samuel Humphrey settled at Suffrage Street. His house 
stood near the spring back of the Connecticut Western Railroad sta- 
tion, and an old barn built by him is still standing. He appears to 
have been the first settler at Suffrage Street. The name of Suffrage 
was given this locality because of the sufferings and privations to 
which the earliest settlers there were exposed during the first winter 
of their settlement. 

The next settler at Suffrage was Dudley Case, who came in 1742 
and settled on the site of the since well known Hosford House, which 
burned down in November, 1874. Dudley Case died in 1792, and 
Eliphalet Curtis kept the house a few years. Abram Hosford, from 
whom the house was named, commenced here as landlord in 1798, and 
kept the tavern for fifty years. Of late the inn has had an unsavory 
reputation. In the days of Abram Hosford, and before the day of rail- 
roads, this was a famous hostelry. It stood on the turnpike from Hart- 
ford to Albany, one of the most crowded thoroughfares in the whole 
country. Its fires went not out fr(un one year's end to the other ; 
parties were constantly arriving or departing, and the scene was one 
of uninterrupted life and bustle. Coaches, drawn by four or six 
horses, regularly drew up at the door, and their approach was always 
heralded by the merry winding of the driver's horn. The man who, 
fifty years ago, should have predicted that all this l)usiness and bustle 
would soon be done away with, by means of an invention then yet to 



14 HISTORICAL ADDRESS. 

be made, would have been scouted as a lunatic. Various interestin 
legends hang about this old house, with more or less foundation ii 
fact. During the War of the Revolution a French officer, a paymaste 
bearing French gold for paying French troops, then stationed nea 
the Hudson, stopped over night at this house and departed in th 
morning, never to be heard of afterward, murdered, probably, fo 
the gold he bore. This murder doubtless gave rise to the traditio 
of a benighted traveler passing through the dark defile in the high 
way, just west of Lyman Higley's, and meeting a flying horseman 
dead and headless : and perhaps to another tradition of a diamonc 
vendor murdered in that dark pass and his headless body thrown int< 
Cherry's Pond. True or false, these stories have, I suspect, recurre( 
to some of us, more than once, when driving through that dark pas 
at night; and our horses have had to go a little faster whether or no 

The next settler at Suffrage Street was Captain Ezekiel Humphrey 
who came in 1744 and lived on the premises now owned and lateb 
occupied by Doctor Ben-Adam Kasson. 

I have the records of many other of the early settlers in Wes 
Simsbury, but, for want of time, these must suffice. 

About the year 1741, the people of West Simsbury, true puritans., 
commenced to hold religious meetings in private houses. The Gene ' 
ral Assembly erected West Simsbury into an ecclesiastical society ir 
1750; the first pastor thereafter was Rev. Evander Morrison. 

The first meeting-house was built in 1763, occupied fifty-one years, 
taken down in 1S14, and the one now standing, built on tlie same spot; 
and dedicated in 1815. The dedication sermon was preached b) 
Rev. Jeremiah Hallock, pastor from 1785 to 1826, a period of fort> 
years. The interior of this church, at Canton Center, was remodeled 
into its present elegant shape in 1874. 

Jairus Burt was pastor of this church from 1826 till his death, in 
1857. Rev. Mr. Hallock and Rev. Jairus Burt were strong men,( 
divines of the genuine Jonathan Edwards stamp, who strove to serve 
God with every fibre of their bodies and every faculty of their minds, 
struggling meanwhile with the doctrines of foreordination and free- 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS. 15 

!, after a fashion that the present generation little understands, 
endance on this church in the olden time was no light matter, 
3cially in winter. The pews were deep, square boxes, that a man 
Id but just see over, and the pulpit was high in the air. Tithing 
1, armed with wooden rods, kept the sleepy from sleeping, and did 

scruple to soundly shake the boy who laughed or whispered. The 
sre and earnest religion professed by our fathers allowed no heat- 

of the meeting-house in winter, though the women and children 
[ foot-stoves and foot-warmers. After a while, the congregation 
de a habit of gathering, during the noon spell, at a building near 

which came to be called the "cider house," from the fact that it 
ays had a barrel of cider, free to all. The cider, with the sausages 
ich the people brought with them and roasted at a large fire-place 
:he cider house, doubtless served to enable the partakers to endure 

afternoon freeze with more equanimity. 

The instrumental music, at one time, was a violin, bass-viol, and 
rionet. The bass-viol was introduced during Mr. Hallock's pasto- 
t. Old Lydia Lewis, an early comer, heard its first strains, as the 
sician was tuning up. She hobbled up the steep gallery stairs, and, 
dng her cane over the offender, cried, " I've caught you with your 
lie, and I'll tell Mr. Hallock." 

Mrs. Eliza E. .Shumway, of Syracuse, N. Y., has in her possession 
lewter tankard, bearing this inscription : " Tankard used in the 
mmunion Service of the Society who Built the first Meeting-House 
West Simsbury, in the year 1763. Rev. Gideon Mills, Pastor." 
e tankard has a lid, and was passed to the communicants, each one 
nking from the top. 

It was Darius Moses, I think, who owned the first wagon which 
:r came into these parts, a vehicle of the "lumber-box" variety. 

did not dare, for a long time, to drive his family to church in 

because the community considered it frivolous. The common 
de of locomotion was on horseback, frequently upon a pillion. 

Some of these things seem odd and rather laughable to us, but if 
/ one thinks that these men were not earnest, and God-fearing, and 
oily manly, that jjerson is greatly mistaken. The men who were 



l6 HISTORICAL ADDRESS. 

content to spend a lifetime in subduing a place in the forest, 
large enough to found a home and rear a family, and to endure p 
tions which would make life wholly miserable for us, were anim 
by lofty principle and deep religious convictions. 

In 1783 there seems to have been some sort of a dissension ir 
church at Cherry Brook, for at that time a meeting-house was bui 
the north part of West Simsbury, by a so-called " Independe 
Association — Deacon Elisha Graham being one of the leading sj 
— which applied to the General Assembly to be erected intc 
ecclesiastical society, but the petition, though pressed several y 
was never granted. For many years Rev. Seth Sage, who had 1 
dismissed from the Cherry Brook church, in 1778, officiated as past ' 
the North-End church, but after his death services pretty much ce: : 
About 1835, Colonel Decius Humphrey bought the building, m 
it to the premises where Doctor Kasson lately lived, and used it s 
cocoonery at the time of the silk-worm fever. 

His speculation proved unsuccessful ; the late Elias Wood) 
bought the building, and, with the parts, built a dwelling-hous 
CoUinsville, a little southwest of his own residence, which is ( 
standing. 

In the same year, 1783, a number of persons in the south p^' 
West Simsbury seceded from the Cherry Brook society, and formi 
new society, under the name of "Separatists," of which church ^ 
James Bacon was the first pastor. Two years afterward, in 17 . 
schism arose among the "Separatists," and about one-half of 
embraced the Baptist faith. This was the beginning of the ); 
society at Suffrage Street, or Canton Village. Its meeting hou- 
built in 1805, and Rev. Jared Mills was the first pastor there, i 
The edifice stood on the village green. In 1838 it was remoi 
and moved to its present site. 

In 1836, ten years after Collins and Company commencolt 
manufacture of axes and other edge-tools, a Congregational nun 
house was built in CoUinsville, with four thousand dollars furni 
by The Collins Manufacturing Company. Rev. H. N. Brinsi 



HISTORICA I, ADDRESS. I J 

s the first pastor thereafter, and was succeeded by Rev. C. C. Van- 
delem. Rev. F. A. Barton was ordained in 1839, and remained 
I 1843. Rev. Charles McLean was ordained in 1843, ^^'^ officiated 
1 1866, dying some years afterwards at Wethersfield, Conn. He 
5 an eminent and blameless Christian, and added to his virtues the 
ices of a finished scholarship. The meeting-house was burned one 
iterly cold and snowy night, January 18, 1857, and immediately re- 
ilt, with six thousand dollars furnished by The Collins Company, 
e thousand dollars contributed by Samuel W. Collins, and two 
ousand dollars raised by general subscription. That edifice stands 
fore you. 

A small but neat Methodist Episcopal meeting-house was built in 
Drth Canton in 1871, and has had the usual services since. 

A Methodist Episcopal meeting-house was built in Collinsville in 
68 ; its appearance and location are known to you all. 

A Roman Catholic church building was erected in Collinsville, on 
s west side of the river, in 1852, and has had the usual services 
ice. 

A Protestant Episcopal church building, named " Trinity Church," 
just finished in Collinsville; the society was legally organized in 
75, but had been in existence two or three years previously. 

The ecclesiastical society of West Simsbury, containing about 
irteen hundred inhabitants, was incorporated as the town of Canton, 

act of the General Assembly, in 1S06. The name. Canton, — 
ggested by the late Ephraim Mills — is derived from a supposed 
eness to a Swiss canton, the meaning of the word being to divide 
set off, and the partition from Simsbury made the name appropriate. 

The first known settler on Collinsville territory was John Wood- 
-d ; the date of his settlement was about 1745. He built, in 1775, 
s house later known as the "Tim. Case Tavern," and still later as 
le Collinsville Hotel, now used as a tenement house, and standing 
ar the village station of the Connecticut Western Railroad; it is 
obable that Woodford's earlier log house stood on about the same site. 

The next known settler, in order of time, was Joseph Segur, who 
3 



l8 HISTORICAL ADDRESS. P 

lived on the west side of the river, near the present site of the hou 
of the late John Grady, and came over in a canoe to his grist-mi', 
built by him about 1765, which stood on the rocks near the prese? 
site of The Collins Company's box shop, and which was carried ( 
in the ''Jefferson flood " of 1801, and never rebuilt. 

The next mill built on Collinsville territory was a forge-shop f 
working pig-iron, brought from Canaan, Conn., into wrought. Tb 
forge was built about 1792, and stood on the present site of The Cc 
lins Company's old stone shop. It was built and owned by Colon 
George and Captain Fred. Humphreys, was ruined by a flood in 180 
and never restored. 

In 1805 Captain Fred. Humphreys built a grist-mill on the pre 
ent site of The Collins Company's polishing shop, afterward sold 1 
this Company, and taken down in 1829. 

In 1815 a saw-mill was built by Captain Fred. Humj)hreys a.\ 
Samuel Gridley, near by the last-mentioned grist-mill. 

When Collins and Company, in 1826, bought the water privile: 
and a few acres of land around, there were but four settlers on C( 
linsville territory, to wit : Correl Humphrey, who lived in the hou 
now occupied by J. B. Bodwell — built by Captain Fred. Humi)hre 
in 1789 ; Isaac P. Humphrey, who lived in a house built in 1792, n( 
Rodney Carr's wagon shop, which then stood some rods west of 
present location, alongside the road which ran on the bank of t 
river or race-way ; Timothy Case, who kept the already mention 
and not altogether reputable "Tim Case Tavern" ; and Langdon t 
miller, who lived in a house which stood just in front of the prese 
site of the Canal Railroad station. 

The history of Collinsville commences in 1826, and is identic 
with the history of Samuel Watkinson Collins, one of the nobl 
men of modern times, who passed to his rest April 30, 1871. 1 
conception of the enterprise, which has eventuated in this vast mai 
facturing establishment, belongs to his brother, David Chittend 
Collins; but to Samuel W. Collins is due the credit of carrying t 
work from its first beginning to its present magnificent developmei 
as the largest of its kind in the world. 



HTSTORICA I. ADDRESS. I9 

These men were the sons of a lawyer, Alexander Collins, resident 
t Middletown, Connecticut, but who lies buried in Brattleboro, Ver- 
nont, where he died while away from home on professional business. 
The son Samuel, early showing large business capacity, was taken 
nto partnership by his uncle, Mr. Watkinson of Hartford, and the 
irm of Watkinson and Collins did a good business till Mr. Collins left 
;t for. the concern of Collins and Company. The brother David was, 
at an early age, employed in an iron house in Hartford, and before 
he was of age commenced the making of axes by hand, with a few 
men, in that city. 

Axes at that time were made by common blacksmiths ; they were 
rude, clumsy affairs, and required a half-day's grinding by the pur- 
chaser before using. 

David C. Collins conceived the bold idea of producing ground 
and polished axes, in large quantities, by machinery; and in looking 
about for a suitable spot whereon to commence this enterprise, fixed 
upon the present site of CoUinsville. He was just of age, Samuel 
was but three years older, and they associated with them another 
young man, their cousin, William Wells, each contributing five 
thousand dollars to the capital stock. The name of the partnership 
was Collins and Company. 

In 1826 they bought the saw-mill and grist-mill before referred to, 
and a few acres of land. In 1827 they tore away the old log dam, 
and built in its place a stone wall, west of where the old stone shop 
now stands. They also quarried the stone from the spot where the 
Company's office now stands, and commenced the old stone shop. 
The race-way in front of the long grind shop was then a part of the 
bed of the river. They also built a forge shop, a charcoal storehouse, 
and three houses, one now belonging to the heirs of the late Samuel 
Barbour, one now occupied by Luke Chapman, and the one next west 
long occupied by S. W. Collins, who this year boarded about a mile 
up the river, with Theodore Pettibone, in the house where Mr. Sage 
now lives. 

In 1828 Collins and Company built a trip-hammer shop — now a 
grind shop, just east of the old stone shop — commenced "drawing 



20 HISrORICALADDRKSS. 

ax patterns," and put uj) the two boarding-houses. They offered tc 
give Doctor O. B. Freeman the land where James Spencer's hous^ 
now stands to build on, but the Doctor did not think it worth hi 
while, and settled down at Canton Village. Were it not that out 
good old friend has since thought better of Collinsville, I should deen: 
this a fitting opportunity to take our revenge upon him. 

In 1829 they erected the old "pine tree" shop, and started theii 
first anthracite fires. They removed the grist mill, and on its site, 
where the polishing shop now stands, built a grind shop ; also built 
the old "bit-drawing " shop, and a forge shop, about where the blacking 
shop now stands. Benjamin T. Wingate, a well-respected citizen im 
his day, now deceased, commenced work at forging broad-axes, and, 
as the record shows, lost not a single day in the whole year. He was; 
afterwards made overseer, and so remained till his deatli. 

In i<S3o Collins and Company built the office, on the site of 
the present one, used the basement as a school room, and the 
hall overhead for religious services, till the meeting-house was built, 
in 1836. 

In 1 83 1 they built twenty-one double tenements, on the east side 
of the river. William Wells died, and Charles Blair, the honored! 
president of this meeting, commenced work. He has ever since, 
except for a short interval, been connected with the Company, for 
some years as superintendent. 

In 1832 John F. Wells came in as a partner. Twenty-four tene- 
ments were built on the west side of the river, and on the east side 
the two cottages, one of which is now occu])ied by Milo Chidsey, and 
the other as a parsonage. K. K. Root came to work as machinist. 
He was afterward made superintendent, and so remained till 1849, 
when he took charge of Colonel Colt's armory, in Hartford. Both 
establishments possess enduring monuments of his splendid inventive 
genius. 

In 1833 hard times were coming on. A quarrel in the Hartford 
Bank — bankers of Collins and Company — turned out the old board 
of directors and put in a new board, who at once came down on Col- 
lins and Company for an immediate and heavy reduction of their line 



Ti I STORICAI. ADDRESS. 2T 

of discounts, most needlessly forcing the edge tool concern into sus- 
jiension. The works were turned over to trustees, who ran them a 
few months and paid off the mortgage debt. Within a week after the 
suspension, David Hinman's invention in ax-making machines went 
into successful operation, and such was its efficacy that had these ma- 
chines been started six months earlier all danger of suspension might 
have been avoided. 

This suspension was a blow to the sensitive spirits of the Collins 
brothers and Mr. Wells, felt by them all through their lives, but they 
promptly took hold of the new concern and did the same service for 
it that they had before done for themselves. 

In 1834 the concern was reorganized as a corporation, under an 
arrangement which paid off the whole indebtedness, with the name of 
the Collins Manufacturing Company, and capital of $150,000. The 
officers were: — George Handy, of Philadelphia, president; Thomas 
C. Perkins, of Hartford, secretary; David C. Collins, agent and 
treasurer; and Samuel W. Collins, superintendent. In 1845 S- ^• 
Collins was made president, and so remained till his death in 1871. 

In 1836 Mr. S. W. Collins caused the planting of the noble elms, 
along all our streets, which render our otherwise plain village a thing 
of beauty. 

In 1837 the Company suspended work for five months, and built a 
dam across the Farmington river, on the site of the present one, and 
also the long bulk-head. In this year they bought the Correl Hum- 
phrey place — J. B. Bodwell's present residence. 

In 1841, the -^tna Fire Insurance Company donated to the people 
of Collinsville one hundred dollars for their services at a fire; this 
money was invested in a library, to which additions were made from 
time to time, and was transferred to the high school when that build- 
ing was erected, and was the nucleus of its present library. 

In 1846 the Company dug the '■ canal," and begun the new stone 
shop which was finished in 1847, ^^^ E. K. Root's punching, tem- 
pering, and shaving machines were put into it. In this year Seth P. 
Norton commenced for the Company as book-keeper; he was made 
agent in 1857, and so remained till his death in 1867. 



22 HISTORICAL ADDRESS. 

In 1849 the Company raised the dam two feet, and put stone gat( 
into the bulk-head. 

In 1S50 the Canal Railroad (the New Haven and Northampto 
Company) extended its branch to this village ; S. W. Collins bui 
his house, now occupied by Mrs. Johnson, on the west side of th 
river. 

In 1853 the high school building, to the west and next to the Coi 
gregational meeting-house, was erected. 

In 1856 the Company commenced a suit to evict the owner of th 
so-called "Bee-hive" building on the ground that he had forfeitC' 
the property by breaking the condition contained in the deed of th 
land. This condition is found in all deeds from The Collins Com 
pany, and forbids the sale of intoxicating liquor on the premises 
The courts sustained the legality of the restriction, but found that th 
owner and grantee was not privy to the sale of spirits. 

In 1857 the Congregational meeting-house was burned, and imme 
diately rebuilt as hereinbefore stated. Isaac Osgood was hired a 
superintendent; Seth P. Norton was made agent. Naylor & Com 
pany, of England, made The Collins Company a gift of the steel bel 
now hanging over a building near the head of the works; this was thi 
first steel bell ever hung in America. 

In 1859 the long trip-hammer shop just north of the new stoni 
shop was built. 

In 1861 the manufacture of the now celebrated cast cast-steel plow: 
was commenced. 

; In 1863 the steel foundry was put up; in 1864 the cementing furi 
pace was erected. 

The magnificent stone dam, the fine hotel, and the office, were 
built in 1866, 1867, and 1868. 

In 1866, Mr. S. W. Collins became an invalid, and, to the time 
of his death in 1871, did little in the Company's affiiirs except to give 
his advice when needed. He was practically succeeded by William 
Jackson Wood, the present vice-president. To Samuel W. Collins,- 
more than to any other man, is due the credit of carrying the concern 
from its small beginnings, with §15,000 capital, to its present enor- 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS. 23 

mous development, with a capital of $1,000,000, a yearly production 
of a million dollars' worth of edge tools, which are sold in various 
parts of the globe, and factories the roofs of which cover thirteen 
acres; though the present administration is wholly worthy to succeed 
Mr. Collins, and has fully kept up the old standard of progress and 
development, under circumstances as trying as the Company has ever 
encountered. 

The present organization of The Collins Company is as follows : 
Edward B. Watkinson, president since 187 1 ; William Jackson Wood, 
vice-president and chief executive officer since 1867; Edward H. 
Sears, agent since 1874; Charles H. Blair, superintendent since 1875 > 
and Luke Chapman, master mechanic since 1865. 

The territory of Canton has always furnished more than its quota 
when duty called to arms. In the French and the Indian wars, from 
1744 to 1763, West Simsbury furnished some twenty men, of whom 
eight died at Louisbourg, Havanna, and elsewhere. In the War of 
the Revolution West Simsbury sent from seventy to eighty men. In 
the French war of 1798 West Simsbury furnished Oliver and George 
Humphrey, who were in the action between the United States frigate 
Constitution and the French 74-gun ship La Vengeance. In the war 
of 181 2 Canton gave fifty men. In the war of 1861-65 Canton sent 
two hundred and eight of her citizens, and of these she mourns more 
than the usual proportion of those of whom it may be said : 

"On Fame's eternal camping ground, 
Their silent tents are spread ; 
And Glory guards, with solemn round, 
The bivouac of the dead." 



Canton has an honorable record in the matter of her sons who 
have gone out from her ; the list includes college presidents, con- 
gressmen, mayors of western cities, lawyers, doctors and divines of 
good repute. Take her all in all. Canton is a town in which any of 
her children may well feel a fair measure of pride in pointing to as 
their place of birth. 



24 HISTORICAL ADDRESS. ■ 

God grant that at the next Centennial, one hundred years from to-) 
day, when the daisies are waving over all our graves, as they to-day 
wave over the men whose deeds we now recall, the record of ouri 
native town may still be fair as now ! 

THE END. 



Personal. — The limited time — less than three weeks — given me wherein to 
prepare this sketch, happening at a time when I was more than ordinarily pressed by 
professional work, ])Ut it utterly out of my power to prepare a history worthy of the 
occasion. I have since thought of a deliberate elaboration of the subject, but a sur- 
vey of the field satisfies me that to do this requires an amount of careful research for i 
which I can not possibly find the time. I therefore print the address, word for 
word, as originally delivered. I take pleasure in acknowledging the obligations I 
am under to various of my present and former townsmen for information furnished, 
and particularly to Moses S. Dyer, Levi Case, and David B. Hale, Esquires. 

W. K. S. 



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3477-226 
Lot 21 



Printed by Fowler, Miller & Company, 2 Sute Street, Hartford. 



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